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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Popular culture Quackery Religion Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Sarah Hershberger: “Cancer-free” and proof that natural healing works? Not so much…

One of the more depressing topics that I regularly write about includes of analyses of news stories of children with cancer whose parents decided to stop science-based treatment (usually the chemotherapy) and use quackery instead. There are, of course, variations on this theme, but these stories take form that generally resembles this outline: A child […]

Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Religion

Confirmed: Sarah Hershberger’s family has fled

It figures. Whenever there’s a holiday or a break where I’m not paying as much attention to the blog as usual, something always seems to happen regarding a story I’m interested and have been blogging about. Remember Sarah Hershberger? She’s 11 year old Amish girl who developed lymphoblastic lymphoma, underwent one round of chemotherapy, suffered […]

Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Sarah Hershberger and Zija MLM

Like many cases of children with cancer whose parents tried to deny them curative therapy in the past that I’ve written about, I’ve become intensely interested in the case of 10-year-old Amish girl with lymphoblastic lymphoma. Her name is Sarah Hershberg, and, in a rare instance of the state actually stepping in to protect the […]

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Bioethics Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Religion

Chris Wark spins the story of the Amish girl with cancer whose family refuses her chemotherapy

Here we go again. Over the last month or so, I’ve been intermittently writing about a very sad case, a case that reminds me of too many cases that have come before, such as Abraham Cherrix, Kate Wernecke, Daniel Hauser, and Jacob Stieler. All of these are stories of children who were diagnosed with highly […]

Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Children are not their parents’ property

Yesterday’s post about Sarah Hershberger, the Amish girl from northeast Ohio with lymphoblastic lymphoma who refused chemotherapy, prompting a court battle that led to the appointment of a medical guardian for her to make sure she receives treatment, got me to thinking (always a dangerous thing). Actually, I had to think back over the years […]